Although some retail dealers trade exotic (less popular) currencies such as the Thai baht or the Czech koruna, the majority trade the seven most traded currency pairs in the world. The four most popular, also known as "the majors" are:

These currency pairs, along with their various combinations (such as EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY and EUR/GBP) account for the majority of all speculative trading in FX. According to the Bank for International Settlements, in April 2016, the U.S. dollar remained the dominant vehicle currency. Specifically, the greenback was on one side of 88% of all trades during the month. Given the small number of possible trades - only 18 pairs are actively traded - the FX market is much less broad than the stock market. (For more, see Top 8 Most Tradable Currencies and Popular Forex Currencies